Community Building In the Real World
Category:Bootcamp [[Notes from the Nonprofit Boot Camp 2007|Back to Notes]] Atashi Chakravarty - East Bay API Coalition to End Domestic Violence; Narika *Community-building in real life *Community-specific domestic violence intervention; community outreach a key *Toll free hotline; most people they serve are not online; counseling and hands on services *Perceived as feminists from Berkeley; people would tear down our posters; how get message out there and not be so in your face? *Challenge: diversity of South Asian community; not a culturally homogeneous group *When approaching faith-based and other organizations/communities for collaboration/outreach, first ask "what can we do for you?", not "what can you do for us?" **Example: approached a Sikh temple for domestic violence outreach **Asked what are their needs? Answer: legal services for immigration issues **Narika is not a legal service provider, we went back to our network, what can we do? **Found a partner that held pro-bono legal clinics; Narika made their materials available (domestic violence prevention info); men & women would pick them up; nonthreatening **Built trust with temple community **Eventually temple leadership opened up to hosting their domestic violence prevention outreach programs Melinda Kramer - Natural Capital Institute; Women's Earth Alliance *Convening women virtually *Avoid missed opportunities due to orgs, funders, others who can help each other not coming together, because they don't know about each other *Check out Wiser Earth at www.wiserearth.org. From their website: "a community directory and networking forum that maps and connects non-governmental organizations and individuals addressing the central issues of our day; climate change, poverty, the environment, peace, water, hunger, social justice, conservation, human rights and more." from kfb: I checked out their website and surprisingly they already have my (tiny!) org listed! All I have to do is make some minor updates. **Website that helps people in environmental sustainability & social justice work together **A meta resource, orgs, events, jobs, resources **Can narrow to specific need, and where silos are broken down **Like Wikipedia – community generated content **A reflection of who we are as a movement **Growing every day, launched May this year – a foundation of a house – inviting all people and orgs to build upon the foundation **Great example of community that exists in real world, leverage by tools on the internet **Place to convene when we can't be face to face; bridge real and virtual worlds o be more effective as advocates and active community members Ben Rattray - Change.org *debunking myths **myth 1: social networks are for kids **myth 2: social networks are for socializing **myth 3: social networking is a fad *new form of communication **eNewsletter - 2.25% response rate **two-way communication – media production youtube, wikis **peer-to-peer interaction – rich relations – way for members to connect **empower supporters – advocates, resources, donations **overcoming barriers to involvement: power of personal connections ***reasons people give for not getting involved: lack of personal connection to cause or org; paradox of choice, so much to do, ignore them all ***use personal connections – people care about issues vicariously – transmit personal stories and empathy more effectively **collective action and magnified impact **social recognition and reinforcement *the present, what orgs are doing now **many orgs are excited and dedicating resources **focused primarily of myspace (60mn users) and Facebook (34mn) **bottomline: not fully embraced – using as marketing vehicles – to get new members; instead of tapping into existing members, engaging them better; not using social net tools to empower them *the future **deep integration with existing processes **use those tools to host own content, comment on work you're doing, see their photos **allow collaboration among orgs with overlapping missions Q&A *How do you convene when you can't be face to face? **discussion forums **area focus portals **wiser earth groups – for existing communities **people don't just come unless they have a compelling reason to be there *Build your own? **very few can **needs critical mass, sufficient content **nonprofits swimming upstream, building what's already out there * MySpace, Facebook **get an intern to manage **make sure you get url **soup it up with videos, photos, put bling in your blog; photostreams; customize it **proactively friend people 70 a day; go to top friends who are most active **send bulletins, mass spam in myspace **3-5 times a day so not get pushed down, then eliminate the old ones **small things matter – name of your url, design **some things will not work on myspace, distracting ads *six degrees org – create a fundraising widget *second life – facilitate meetings around the world; nonprofit commons within secondlife; feels a little overwhelming *integration – email, discussions group, social networking, wikis – not one tool out there that does everything *how to pull people in – real stories that we experience in our communities – nothing more powerful than a personal account; her stories on narika's website; march of dimes –Share Your Story – blogging their day to day struggles. *how sustain **wiser earth – same model as Wikipedia – user generated – become more valuable – no ads – tiny staff – low costs – funded by foundations **change,org 1% donations Online communities & tools *Facebook *MySpace *Six Degrees at www.sixdegrees.org - person-to-person online viral fundraising, leverage the connections/communities people already have *Ning create a customized social network and share it *Groundspring for donation page *Craigslist Foundation resources & online community